The Block by Block blog is moving. We are phasing out our Posterous site for a WordPress blog as BxB revamps its online presence. Find us at BlockbyBlock.us for all indepedent, hyperlocal and community news publisher information and networking. 

Our Twitter ID remains the same: @myBxB

Thanks!

Jessica Durkin @jessdrkn

Michele McLellan @michelemclellan

Block by Block hosted a vigorous discussion on what it means to be "Authentically Local" and why "local doesn't scale." Baristanet publisher and Authentically Local campaign organizer Deb Galant was the featured guest. Read what independent publishers have to say about local news and advertising in a scaled, digital world. See it on Storify.  

The proliferation of more than 100 hyperlocal or community news sites in New Jersey over the past two years has prompted a non-profit group to form the New Jersey Hyperlocal News Association to help sustain journalism with civic-minded resources. 

As traditional media outlets have downsized operations, directly affecting government news coverage, and with local television news markets catering to New York and Philadelphia, the nonpartisan Citizens Campaign sought to fill the information void. 

The group received a $165,690 grant last year from the Rita Allen Foundation to start hyperlocal website NewBrunswickPress.com and the hyperlocal news association. After picking a board of advisors, which includes CUNY’s Jeff Jarvis, independent publishers Deb Galant of Baristanet and Donna Liu of AllPrinceton.com, the New Jersey Editor at Patch.com, and a representative of Gannett’s hyperlocal InJersey.com network, the group was in action by January. 

There is no cost to join the group, but advisors are considering future membership sales. 

Jessica Durkin (@jessdrkn) of Block by Block (@myBxB) talks to Heather Taylor, staff liaison at the New Jersey Hyperlocal News Association (@njhyperlocal).

Why start New Jersey Hyperlocal News Association now?

We began this effort with a citizen journalism program in 2009 and at the same time started seeing these hyperlocals which offered a platform for citizen journalists to get published. We hosted our first conference on citizen journalism in 2009 and invited hyperlocal sites to share what they were doing. They were all looking at one another, picking up these tips. We recognized there was a need to continue that conversation. We started hosting regional events which resulted with us seeking the grant from the Rita Allen Foundation.

There’s been a decline in local and state government coverage. Since our expertise is in local government we thought we could provide journalists resources.

New Jersey is known as a hyperlocal and community news hotbed – you have identified 103 hyperlocal sites, both independent and corporate-owned, around the state to-date.

It’s definitely ground zero for hyperlocal journalism. We have 565 municipalities. We are one of the richest states, most educated, and people want local news.  All these factors culminate in the perfect landscape for hyperlocal journalism to develop and grow. And we lack a New Jersey commercial TV station so people are really hungry for news. And with the papers doing less and less on municipal beats, the hyperlocals are filling that void. Another factor is we have the highest property taxes, and people want to know how their money is being spent locally and the hyperlocals are doing that.  

The state is split into two commercial TV markets:  New York City in north Jersey and Philly in south Jersey. Most people will know what’s going on with Mayor [Michael] Bloomberg in New York City or Mayor [Michael] Nutter in Philly before they know what’s going on with the mayor in their own city.

Some towns have three competing hyperlocals. Princeton, Montclair, Morristown -- there’s some towns where there might be two or three hyperlocals and depending on what their models are will determine who survives, or maybe they can find their own niches, but we help all them.

"It’s definitely ground zero for hyperlocal journalism." -- Heather Taylor, NJHNA

Google Map screenshot of New Jersey Hyperlocal News Association news sites 

How does helping hyperlocal journalism tie with the Citizens Campaign?

We think that for the health of our democracy in the 21^st century, citizens need to be informed of what’s happening so then they can constructively participate. It’s clear that Hyperlocal news is an important part of the future of journalism here in New Jersey.  Everything is going online these days. I think it’s still early to see what the business model is, different sites are learning how to survive financially.  I think that’s going to get figured out in the next year or so. 

Why emphasize civic journalism?

If these sites are known to provide quality journalism and the go-to places for government and political news, people will be going to them and they will be trusted sites. In our citizen journalism class one of the main take-aways from it are the five principles of journalism: accuracy, thoroughness, fairness, independence and objectivity. These principals applied to hyperlocal sites can help build trust within their community, and hopefully in the end translate to increased advertising revenue. Baristanet is a perfect example, they are a trusted information source in their community. 

It’s definitely the quality of the editor that makes a difference. Both Joe Malinconico at PatersonPress.com and John Celock at WestfieldPatch.com won SPJ awards for their high quality online civic journalism. For reporters who may be fresh out of journalism school, and maybe do not have municipal beat training, we’re offering guidance and education. 

What are the criteria for joining the NJHNA?

We’re still in the beginning stages -- we just had our first meeting. It was clear at that meeting, that one of the high priorities is access to open government and sunshine law assistance. We have bi-monthly meetings/training sessions, where we have offered expert training in municipal budgets, municipal reorganization, planning commissions.  We also offer a citizen journalism program where we try to partner up citizen journalists with hyperlocal sites. I also write what I call “sidebar civics” articles, these are educational stories on how citizens can get engaged.  For example, informing readers about the upcoming primary election how readers can register to vote. 

Our goal is the make these online town squares where people are not only getting informed but can go back and get engaged in our community. 

What are the group's plans for the near future? 

Down the road, we will share tips on marketing.  We are looking at programs on environmental reporting and political parties for our June 8 meeting. We are open to the public and we usually see a mix of citizen journalists, publishers, and whoever is interested in those topics.

We want to develop a hub for job postings and internship opportunities, and advise citizen journalists on ethics, and help set the standards for freelancers. We want to start a job bank, we can send resumes to the hyperlocals. 

Download a registration form for the New Jersey Hyperlocal News Association.

 

 

 

Image: TheNeedle.us, a stand-alone community site in Seattle. NewsCloud platform.

Image: Hyperlocal site Baristanet's Facebook page at facebook.baristanet.com using NewsCloud platform.

By Jessica Durkin

Jeff Reifman sees community engagement quickly evolving online and he has designed an open-source platform to make information sharing easy for publishers of small and medium-sized publications.

“Given what we’ve seen with news organizations is they are too compromised to effectively promote in communities,” Reifman said. “What we’ve seen is that most publishers deliver content and allow readers to comment, what we’re trying to do is expand storytelling and interaction, we think that can drive page views.” 

The Seattle-based Reifman is the founder of NewsCloud, a technology project in its third round of grant funding by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. With the latest funding of $190,000 announced this month, the project has changed direction recently to focus on social media news sharing after a hard assessment of its early iteration.

A handful of legacy and new media outlets have partnered with NewsCloud on its turnkey platform for the Web and Facebook – indeed, one of the NewsCloud’s priorities is creating an organized social media presence for news publishers.

Reifman is working with The Washington Post and Boston Globe Facebook and Web sites. Independent hyperlocal news outlet Baristanet is also an early platform tester for its Facebook presence; and Reifman has launched stand-alone community site The Needle in Seattle for a “town hall” style curated and aggregated information feed.  

The front-page layouts can accommodate news sections, feeds, a blogs tab, comments and social media integration and sharing.

Reifman said small, independent publishers could run their entire news site on the NewsCloud platform or use it as an extension for interactive features. Reifman said the platform is well-suited to sites with community populations of 1,000 to 5,000 people.

“We think this is the most innovative platform that no one has ever heard of,” Reifman said. “It has a feature set and it’s customizable and we think people should be checking us out." 

Reifman said the next platform release will be a 3.1 version available in the summer. He said programmers are simplifying installation and will continue updates through April 2012, when the grant ends. Developers are invited to work on the Rails-based platform.  

Platform installation is free, but general site hosting and tech support costs apply – less than $100 a month. Reifman said he is working with Amazon.com to arrange one free year of cloud hosting for anyone using the platform.

“There are online community town halls where people can share stories, feed stories; multimedia galleries, idea gathering, classifieds, a lending library -- everything in the system is completely tied in to Facebook, so if you want to share something you click a button,” he said.

 

 

GOOGLE The search giant launched this month "News near you", a mobile application for location-based news aggregation. Is your hyperlocal content showing up on the news page? (Google)

PATCH A Q&A with Patch president Warren Webster on AOL's hyperlocal expansion strategy. Hint: They'd like to be in all 50 states. They are in 18 states and DC today. (NetNewsCheck)

DIGITAL LITERACY Some Recovery Act money is funding a new digital literacy project for computer training and access in communities around the country. (Knight Commission, digitalliteracy.gov)

@myBxB will be hosting a Twitter chat tonight (5/23), 8 pm ET with Baristanet's Debra Galant to talk about the recently launched Authentically Local campaign that aims to reclaim locally-owned and operated news sites.

Authentically Local has so far 30 signers to the campaign, all hyperlocal or community news publishers from across the country. The campaign emerges as corporate media companies are launching local digital sites to compete for advertising dollars.

 Twitter Chat: Why local doesn't scale, with Debra Galant of Baristanet 

@mybxb, @debgalant, #mybxb, #hyperlocal

Monday, 5/23, 8 pm ET

 

Join Block by Block on Twitter (@myBxB) on Monday, May 23, 8pm ET for a one-hour chat with Debra Galant, a co-founder of independent community news site Baristanet.com. Galant is among 30 online community or hyperlocal news publishers across the country rallying around the concept of "local" as corporate media neighborhood sites, such as AOL's Patch.com outlets, expand in local territories.

Galant and others recently launched the Authentically Local campaign emphasizing that "local doesn't scale." She will discuss what the campaign, the business of being local, and what it means for communities and stakeholders.  

 

Nice list from Mark Potts (@pottsmark) and #kdmccamp News Entrepreneur Boot Camp -

10 things you need to know about startups

 

1.     Startups are really, really hard work

2.     They’re not for everybody

3.     It’s a constant roller-coaster

4.     Things never move quickly enough

5.     Prepare to be discouraged

6.     Listen to what people tell you (but don’t believe it all)

7.     Have a sense of humor and play

8.     Get comfortable wearing many different hats

9.     Be flexible about EVERYTHING: something will always change – radically

10. Startups are really, really hard work

 

He had many more business tips. Here's the Storify thread of Tweets about Mark's presentation: http://sfy.co/9MI
Here is where presentation slides from boot camp are being posted: http://bit.ly/k6TNxw
(Be sure to check mine out!)

Michele

Photo: http://www.willparson.com/

Photo: Voice of San Diego

Photo: Voice of San Diego

 

By Jessica Durkin

Nonprofit online news site Voice of San Diego is using an offline tactic to boost brand recognition and raise funds.

The investigative journalism outlet founded in 2004 has released “Our People, Our Places: A San Diego Photo Story”,  a first-run coffee table book showcasing the past four years of photographs taken by staff photographer and photo editor Sam Hodgson.

Hodgson said the 80-page book was conceptualized late last year as a way to expand the Voice of San Diego beyond the web.

“We decided we wanted something that would give new life to our content and something tangible to give to our donors,” Hodgson said. “We thought this was a good way to leave our donors with some of our content, and keep that alive as well.”

Hodgson said the collection, from 2007 to this spring, is assembled into a narrative about San Diego’s recent past and present in print form to put the site’s work in people’s hands.

“A book is something someone can stick on their coffee table and on their book shelf and they can continue to pull it out and remember these stories we thought were so impressive we published in the first place,” Hodgson said. 

The first 21 pages of the book are viewable online. The book works in tandem with the site, referring readers to the full story behind the photo online.  

“When we set out to do this, we didn’t set out to make a bunch of money off printing books,” Hodgson said. “It’s something we see as a membership benefit and a way to package our content. Most of these photos otherwise will sit in the depths of our website and the depths of our archives never to be seen except by me unless we bring them out.”  

The organization hosted a book launch party last week and chronicled the event here; 150 first-run copies were printed and sell for $44.95 each; donors who contribute $250 or more to the news organization receive a signed copy.  

Hodgson said the book is part of a larger Voice of San Diego reader engagement strategy that includes community forums and panel discussions. 

 

To the BxB community: Are print projects in your marketing and fundraising strategy?

 

Jessica Durkin, Block by Block community manager, jessdrkn@gmail.com 

By Jessica Durkin

A group of independent, local online news publisher drew a line in the sand Thursday with a campaign to preserve what it means to be “local.”

With corporate media groups launching locally-focused news, such as the growing AOL-Huffington Post Patch.com sites in 19 states across the US and Gannett’s new hyperlocal effort in 10 markets, corporate media sites are banking on scalability to tap the potential $24 billion digital local advertising spendingby 2015.  

But the 30-site, independent publisher group Authentically Local is countering the replication culture by emphasizing the value of locally-owned news operations. The publishers representing sites across the country signed a statement distinguishing their operations from corporate competitors.  

The campaign also aims to recruit local news ecosystem stakeholders and non-digital local businesses.  

John Hawbaker, co-founder of Chattarati.com, a site covering politics, general news and lifestyles in Chattanooga, Tenn.,  signed on to the Authentically Local campaign. Hawbaker started Chattarati in 2008. 

“Every Chattarati contributor lives in the greater Chattanooga area,” Hawbaker told Block by Block in an e-mail. “We work and raise families. We volunteer. We vote. We are citizens who blog and, yes, do journalism. Our connection to the local community is central to our work at Chattarati, and we're proud to join in with other community-minded publications throughout the country." 

In New Jersey, an early hotbed of hyperlocal and online community news activity, RedBankGreen.com co-founder John T. Ward echoed Hawbaker’s local-flavor sentiment.   

“With the rapid rollout of Patch, there's a need for independent hyperlocals to remind readers and advertisers of the value that local ownership and local perspective brings to coverage.” Ward said in an e-mail. “We want people to consider what the news and information landscape in their town would look like if the independents get squeezed out, leaving this fast-food approach to coverage. It's about letting people know that the fate of the independents, many of which are shoestring operations, is really in their hands.”

For some news publishers in remote, non-urban regions of the country, their local news site is sometimes the only independent digital information source in the area.  

“[W]e subscribe to the idea that something real, and tangible, is lost when community coverage is turned over to a chain – where one site looks like the next, and when varying degrees of management are assigned to offices far removed from the area,” said Thomas Palmer, owner of  GalionLive.com and MidOhioLive.com in Ohio.  

Palmer said GalionLive.com has made an impression in the 10,500-person Galion community with more than3,000 registered followers nationwide.  

“We live here, are raising families here, have small businesses here, own property here – we are fully vested in the communities we serve,” Palmer said. “Our readers know this as well, and, in fact, rely on it.”  

See the list of Authentically Local’s founders. Are you are an independent, locally-run and operated news site? Put an Authentically Local badge on it.  

For more information on how to get involved with the Authentically Local coalition, contact Debbie Galant, founder of New Jersey community news site Baristanet at 973-641-1003.